Taiwan 2023
At the end of August and early September 2023, a group of aviation enthusiasts spent a week in Taiwan to try and capture the F-5E, F-5F and RF-5E of the Republic of China Air Force before their withdrawal.
Seven of the eight participants to the August/September 2023 4Aviation tour to Taiwan met at Amsterdam-Schiphol in the late afternoon of Tuesday 29 August. EVA Air would take us to Taipei at 21.40 local time, via a short stop in Bangkok.
The flight, and the stop, went according to plan. After landing at Taipei-Taoyuan Airport (on Wednesday 30 August) the final participant was located quickly. Some cash money was arranged and our rental van was picked up. We then set course for our first hotel of the hour, which was located in Hsinchu. After checking in there, it certainly was time to enjoy a good night’s sleep.
After breakfast (facemask still required in this hotel, although this was the only time they asked us to wear one) we found our way to the approach of Hsinchu soon after. It didn’t take long for the first Mirage 2000s to show up. It also didn’t take long for the police to show up. They took note of our details and wished us luck. We waited at Hsinchu until we were certain that we had seen the complete morning wave of Mirages.
By then it was time to move towards CCK (Taichung, Ching Chuan Kang), via a couple of preserved aircraft, where we were hoping for F-CK-1C/Ds. Weather wasn’t perfect in the afternoon, but we managed to capture a fair number of the locally produced fighters.
By the time we arrived in our next hotel (in Chiayi) we were already aware of a typhoon possibly heading for Taiwan.
Originally, our plan was to start at Chiayi on Friday (1 September). Since we were reminded that the Air Force Academy at Gangshan would be celebrating its anniversary today, we changed our plans. Therefore, we started at Gangshan, hoping for the fly-past of AT-3s and T-BE5A Brave Eagles. We managed to capture there, in brilliant weather. The downside of the anniversary was that no regular flying was going to take place. So, no T-34s unfortunately. After the fly-past we paid a visit to the nearby ROCAF museum. The outside display, at the former location of the museum, was also visited.
In the afternoon we spent time near Chiayi. Unfortunately, we only saw a couple of Army-choppers there. No F-16 took to the air in the time we were there. We therefore ended up in our in Tainan relatively early. So we had plenty of time in the evening to assess the weather for the next couple of days. It was getting more likely that the typhoon (named Hakui) was going to make landfall in Taiwan on Sunday 3 September.
In Taiwan, the weekend is regularly used for flying as well. So, when we headed for Tainan we were hoping for some operational aircraft (Ching Kuo’s to be precise). We ended up seeing them. A total of twelve F-CK-1Cs and Ds landed. Apparently, these hadn’t taken off from Tainan though, but were coming from Makong.
Since we didn´t see F-16s at Chiayi the day before, we decided to give it another go there on Saturday (early) afternoon. This was a good decision, as we were able to capture a number of their F-16s returning soon after our arrival.
Our next destination was Taitung. We had booked a hotel for three nights, so we would have plenty of opportunities to see and photograph the ROCAF F-5s there. By now, we were convinced that typhoon Haikui was going to hit Taiwan on Sunday and it would make landfall just north of Taitung. While driving towards Taitung the situation was still very ok though and we ended up there early in the evening.
Sunday, 3 September, was going to be both a boring and an exciting day. We had made sure that we had enough food and drinks, so we didn’t have to leave the hotel at all today. The warnings that accompanied the arrival of Haikui suggested flooding, power outages and damage to buildings and trees. During the afternoon we all “enjoyed” our first typhoon experience. Very very heavy winds and very heavy rainfall. Our hotel stayed in piece though, but several of the rooms we were in were flooded with water and we had to remove several buckets of water from the floor. When the evening fell, the wind was slowing down a bit and the rain had stopped. The typhoon had passed. PS The F-5s didn’t fly on this day.
While enjoying our breakfast in the hotel on Monday morning (4 September) we were not very hopeful that any flying would take place. The empty platform confirmed this. Today would be a day of cleaning up the mess. Although damage to buildings was limited, many trees and larger bushes had suffered serious damage (either blown over or large branches were blown off). We decided to do some wrecks & relics hunting in the morning. Getting to these aircraft required some zigzagging between the trees and rubbish. Most of the afternoon we spent on our hotel roof, gazing at the air base and the platform, hoping for some activity. This activity was limited to four Mirage 2000s being towed from their ´typhoon hiding´ position to the QRA sheds near the runway threshold.
After having spent a third night in our hotel, the spirits were still high on Tuesday 5 September. We were convinced that all ROCAF personnel would be eager to get aircraft in the air again today from Taitung. Soon after arriving at our regular spot we saw the first F-5 being towed. All aircraft (both the F-5s and the T-BE5As) had been in hiding in a secure place for the past couple of days. One by one they were being pulled out from their hiding place. This meant that we saw a lot of F-5s, all being towed. Many of these were positioned on the flightline. Eventually the first one was started up, followed by another one. After a while four were on the runway, ready for take-off. They did rev up their engines and started their take-off run, but pulled back the throttle after a while. All four didn’t get in the air. A bit disappointing. We managed to get decent shots of them though on the runway. A bit later another four F-5s did the same. Again, giving us nice shots on the runway, but not in the air. We were slowly coming to the conclusion that we wouldn’t see any of the Taitung F-5s in the air. All due to the typhoon.
Luckily, a bit later two of the Mirage 2000s did take-off. After our take-off shots we went to the approach to capture them while returning. By then it was time to head further north, towards Hualien. While driving we could clearly see that the majority of the damage was near to Taitung. The further we drove, the more trees were still standing.
On Wednesday (6 September) we left our hotel in Hualien early, in order to be near the base in time. The weather was perfect, sunshine all over. It didn’t take long for the first F-16s to take to the air. After a while we also saw two of the local F-5s take (one RF-5E and one F-5F). Happy times! This meant that we didn’t have to leave Taiwan without a single F-5 in the air! The rest of the day was spent at the several spots around the base that give plenty of opportunities for great shots.
We were very happy to enjoy a great day at Hualien, since this was our last (operational) day in Taiwan. What remained in the late afternoon/early evening, was the drive to our last hotel. This was very close to Taipei Airport. We handed in our rental van in the evening already.
The flight home, via Bangkok again, started early on Thursday (7 September). We ended up at Schiphol in the early evening and said goodbye to each other. The typhoon had influenced the “result” of the tour, but we still had a good time with plenty of cool shots of interesting aircraft.
